The basics

Participate in the Hackaday Prize by entering in one (or more) of five themed challenges. Each challenge is six weeks long, and occur one after the other. The top twenty projects from each challenge will be awarded $1000 and will move on to the finals, where the Celebrity Judges award the top five projects $10k to $50k respectively.

The first prize team members will also be considered for a residency with the Supplyframe Design Lab to further develop their project.

Quick notes:

You can work on your project after is it submitted. Your project will be judged by its hackaday.io Project Profile when the judging occurs.

You can enter the same project in multiple challenges.

You may not re-enter your exact project from previous years (2014-17). If you create a new Project and make significant improvements to the project it will be considered for the 2018 Hackaday Prize.

ELIGIBILITY. Subject to the additional restrictions below, The Hackaday Prize (the “Contest”) is open to legal
residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, Canada (excluding Quebec), the United
Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Japan, India, South Africa, and wherever else
the Contest is not prohibited or restricted by law. The Contest is not open to residents of Quebec, Cuba, Iran,
North Korea, Sudan, Syria, or any jurisdiction where the Contest would be restricted or prohibited by law. Participants
must be at least 18 years of age (or the local age of majority where they live, if higher) at the time of registration,
except that minors age 13 or older may participate by obtaining the consent of a parent or legal guardian as
described below, as long as such participation is not prohibited or restricted by law where the minor lives.

Projects that were selected as Semifinalists in previous presentations of The Hackaday Prize are not eligible for entry
in this Contest, however, the contestants who developed those projects may enter with a substantially different project,
provided they are otherwise eligible under these Official Rules.

Existing projects, or projects that were entered in previous presentations of The Hackaday Prize but did not advance
to at least the Semifinal round, are eligible for submission as entries in this Contest with the following restrictions:

A new project page must be created.

The project must be significantly different from when previously entered and show meaningful development during the
course of the Contest.

Internet access, a YouTube, Vimeo, or Youku account and personal and project profile pages on hackaday.io are required
to participate. Employees and contractors of Sponsor and the family members of, and any persons domiciled with, any
such employees and contractors, are not eligible to win. The term “family members” includes spouses,
parents, grandparents, siblings, children, grandchildren and in-laws, regardless of where they live.

TERM.The Contest will open at 07:01 a.m. P.D.T. on March 12, 2018 and initial submissions will be accepted until 07:00
a.m. P.D.T. on October 8, 2018. Participants will advance as described below until the Contest ends with the announcement of the prize winners
on or around November 3, 2018.

Common questions

How do I enter?

There is a dropdown menu below your project image. Simply start a project and click the dropdown, from there you will see 2018 Hackaday Prize.

What is considered an entry?

Put simply, you need an idea, an image, and documentation. To start, talk about a technology problem facing people today and your idea of what a solution might be. Yes, you can enter the first challenge with just an idea (and be eligible for judging to move on to the final round). This is what the Open Hardware Design Challenge is all about.

The remaining challenges involve building something and documenting the process. From your documentation, others should be able to build what you're working on, and incorporate the best ideas into their own projects. To be eligible for judging in challenges 2 though 5 you need 4 project logs or instructions.

Those who prefer more constraints will excel in any of the last four challenges tackle specific themes. But everyone should enter the Open Hardware Design Challenge too as it encourages you to plan well, working though problems before they become huge prototyping issues.

What are the 5 Challenges? When do they start/end?

Choose to enter any of these five challenges. Each are 5 weeks long and will have 20 entries advance to the final round.

How many Challenges do I need to participate in?

You must participate in at least one challenge to be eligible for the final round. We encourage you to participate in more but it is not required.

Is it possible to win more than one challenge?

Yes. The same Project Profile may be entered in any or all of the
challenge rounds using the "Submit Project To..." menu found on your project page. Projects should adhere to the theme
of the challenge so you may also consider entering several projects in different rounds.

We're just getting started! Community voting for the first challenge has ended and the top projects will be awarded seed money to help bootstrap their idea.

Start your entry for one or more of the upcoming challenges. The top twenty projects from each challenge will be awarded $1000 and will move on to the finals, where the Celebrity Judges award the top five projects $10k to $50k respectively.

Bootstrap your idea with up to $200

Project likes get you dollars!

We have $6000 we’re giving away to fund the projects our community likes the most, literally. At the end of our first challenge, the Open Hardware Design Challenge, the most liked projects will be paid out $1 per like (maximum $200 per project) until our funding pool runs dry. Promote your project and earn money! Start your entry

Achievements

Let's face it, recognition of great work is an award in itself. Throughout the Hackaday Prize we'll be awarding achievements to the most impressive, outlandish and otherwise notable projects. Check out the hints below on completing these achievements, and keep an eye out as we award some secret ones which are announced as they are received!

Have you found an entry that you think deserves an achievement? Don't keep that a secret, leave a comment on that project page. Your recommendation could make it happen.

Jolly Wrencher Achievement

The Ultimate Achievement: Your project makes a meaningful contribution to Open Hardware.

Voltron Achievement

You've designed a module that's the definition of interchangeable. Combined with others the sum becomes greater than the whole.

Infinite Improbability Achievement

Your power harvesting module does its job so well it doesn't seem possible to power something so impressive from a source so efficient.

Macgyver Achievement

Did you solve something with a paperclip and bubble gum? No you didn't. But your build does amazingly well using commonplace, inexpensive parts.

Diva Plavalaguna Achievement

You've built a musical item so unexpected it blows everyone's mind.

Cyber Punkster Achievement

Your musical performance is so futuristic it can be categorized no other way. You are CyberPunk.

Sonic Screwdriver Achievement

We don't know how, but you've built something that does absolutely everything. Spill the beans.

Ender's Achievement

Are you a student? Let us know and unlock this achievement.

The League of Extraordinary Cyborgs

Unlocked this achievement by collaborating with multiple people on your project.

Pickle Rick Achievement

Your entry is the most "What!?" -- You've earned this.

Meet the judges

Sherry Huss

Sherry Huss is Co-founder of Maker Faire, and a major advocate of “all things maker” in the global community. A former Vice President of Maker Media, her vision and passion for the maker movement was instrumental in growing the Make: brand within the maker ecosystem.

Lauren McCarthy

Lauren McCarthy is an artist based in Los Angeles and Brooklyn whose work explores systems for being a person and interacting with other people. She is an Assistant Professor at UCLA Design Media Arts, a Sundance Institute Fellow and was previously a resident at CMU STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Eyebeam, Autodesk, and more.

Colin Furze

A former plumber, Colin now creates amazing inventions and world record beating vehicles from the un-safety of his shed. His youtube channel has over 5 million subscribers and his videos have been viewed nearly 620 million times.

Kwabena Agyeman

Kwabena enjoys computer vision and machine learning applications and specializes in FPGA and Chip Design. He currently works at Planet Labs as the Lead FPGA Engineer during the day and President of OpenMV during nights and weekends.

Madison Maxey

Madison Maxey is a internationally renowned technologist and multidisciplinary creative. Maxey has pioneered work in bringing flexible, robust circuitry to scale as Founder of LOOMIA. Through her work, Maddy is a Forbes 30 under 30 Member, Thiel Fellow, Lord and Taylor Rose Award Recipient, and has been featured in WIRED, Forbes, Fast Company, and more.

Quinn Dunki

Quinn has been making games for 36 years, on platforms ranging from the Apple II to all manner of newfangled things. She currently manages engineering for mobile games at Scopely. She also pursues consulting, independent development, mixed-media engineering projects, and writing.

Ayah Bdeir

Ayah Bdeir is the founder and CEO of littleBits, an award-winning platform of easy-to-use electronic building blocks that is empowering kids everywhere to create inventions, large and small. Bdeir is an engineer, interactive artist and one of the cofounders of the open hardware summit. An alumna of the MIT Media Lab, Bdeir was named a TED Senior Fellow in 2013.

Chris Anderson

Anool Mahidharia

Anool is an Electrical Engineer, working in the field of Test & Measurement at Lumetronics. When not working at his day job, he dabbles in Astronomy, Origami, Photography, Tinkering, Hacking, and Cycling.

Chris from Clickspring

Eben Upton

Dr Eben Upton CBE is a founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, serves as the CEO of Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd, its trading arm. In an earlier life, he founded two successful mobile games and middleware companies.